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AL GORE for president? Amazingly, there are people who think that would be a good idea. Here are 40 reasons why it wouldn't:

1. He refuses to promise that he won't pardon Bill Clinton.

2. In his first year as vice president, he cast the tie-breaking vote to wrap the largest tax increase in world history around the necks of American taxpayers.

3. But anybody who wants to cut taxes is peddling a "risky tax scheme."

4. Liar, liar (#1): "I found a little place in upstate New York called Love Canal."

5. Gore in the White House means four years of being talked down to like we're a class of unusually slow 5th-graders.

6. Fed up with a landlord who wouldn't fix the overflowing toilets, clogged drains, and moldy walls in their house, the Mayberry family finally gave up and moved out in July. The slumlord? Al Gore.

7. Listen to a liberal: "A president can lead only if other politicians believe that he keeps his word.... But Gore has displayed a Clintonesque tendency to say or do whatever is expedient" -- David Broder in The Washington Post, Sept. 27, 2000.

8. He reacted to Clinton's impeachment by cheering the man who had sullied the Oval Office, betrayed his wife, lied under oath, and obstructed justice: Clinton, Gore said, "will be regarded in the history books as one of our greatest presidents."

9. Liar, liar (#2): "I ... walked through the elephant grass, and I was fired upon" in Vietnam.

10.Gore claims his favorite book is The Red and the Black, a novel written in 1830 by the French author Stendhal. Puh-leez.

11. Private schooling for the Gores, but not a penny for vouchers that might rescue poor kids from crummy public schools.

12. Asked whether his opinion of Bill Clinton changed when Juanita Broaddrick charged that Clinton had raped her in 1978, Gore replied: "Whatever mistakes he made in his personal life are in the minds of most Americans balanced against what he has done ... as president."

13. He wants gasoline to cost even more. ("Higher taxes on fossil fuels ... is one of the logical first steps in ... a more responsible approach to the environment" -- Al Gore, Earth In The Balance, p. 173).

14. Liar, liar (#3): He told seniors in Florida that his mother-in-law pays $108 a month for the same arthritis medicine he gets for his dog for $37.80.

16. For his first campaign chairman, he chose Tony Coelho, a political shakedown artist and influence-peddler who left Congress under an ethical cloud.

17. And for a campaign manager, he chose Donna Brazile, who in 1988 was fired from the Dukakis campaign for spreading filthy rumors about George Bush's private life.

18. On an adjusted gross income of $197,729 in 1997, Gore donated $353 to charity. Stung by bad publicity, he upped his donations the following year -- and issued a press release trumpeting his generosity.

19. He boasts that he was a co-sponsor of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill, a scandalous proposal to silence grassroots activists and prevent challengers from raising the money they need to compete against incumbents.

21. He cozied up to loathsome race-baiter Al Sharpton in a private meeting in his daughter's Manhattan apartment -- then had his aides deny that any such meeting was taking place.

22. Listen to a liberal: "Why should we believe that you will tell the truth as president if you don't tell the truth as a candidate?" -- Bill Bradley, Jan. 26, 2000.

23. He wouldn't french-kiss Tipper in front of guests at his dining room table. But he was gauche enough to do it at the Democratic convention in front of 4,400 delegates, 12,000 members of the press, and a nationwide TV audience.

24. "I was raised a good part of my life on a farm. I've cleaned out hog lots. I've planted. I've harvested. I've taken up hay all day in the sun, and then ... helped neighbors take it up by moonlight before the rain came." Puh-leez.

32. Liar, liar (#6): "The size of the federal government will go down in a Gore administration."

33. Gore sold his 1991 Gulf War vote to the highest bidder. According to former Senator Alan Simpson, Gore offered to support whichever side "would offer him the most and the best speaking time." The night before the vote, he barked at the GOP Senate secretary, "Dammit, Howard! If I don't get 20 minutes tomorrow, I'm going to vote the other way."

34. He mocks conservative activists as "the extreme right wing, the extra-chromosome right wing." An extra chromosome is what causes Down syndrome.

35. On a tour of Monticello in 1993, Gore paused before some sculpted busts to ask, "Who are these people?" The unfamiliar faces: George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.

36. He may just be the nastiest campaigner in national politics.

37. His explanation for not realizing that his fund-raising calls from the White House were soliciting hard-money contributions was that "he drank a lot of iced tea during meetings, which could have necessitated a restroom break." Puh-leez.

38. Oh, yes, there was controlling legal authority. It has been illegal since 1883 to solicit campaign contributions in government buildings.

39. He'll exploit anything for political advantage: In his convention video, he made a point of showing off a nude drawing of his wife.

40. Liar, liar (#7): "There has never been a time in this campaign when I have said something that I know to be untrue."

Forty already -- and I didn't even mention his tobacco hypocrisy, or how he created the Internet, or the fundraising felonies at the
Buddhist temple. But how many reasons do you need? If 40 won't convince you, nothing
will.

Jeff Jacoby is a JewishWorldReview.com contributor. Comment on this column by clicking here.